A Review of the State of the English Nation. Vol. 5: 1708–09 ed. by John McVeagh (review)

203 poon’s complex engagement with temporal and spatial relationships, his supposition of its analogy to variation form in music, and of lampoon’s targeting of traditional forms as in themselves subjects for satire, also suggest ways of deepening our understanding of satire as a ‘‘branch of literature to be interpreted and evaluated as well as contextualized and explicated.’’ Such study will surely be enriched by thoughtful colloquy with what once went by the name of ‘‘literary theory’’; Mr. Love, however, is guardedly ambivalent toward more speculative modes of analysis and interpretation that intersect with his own. Regrettably, Mr. Love did not live to see the final reviews of English Clandestine Satire. He died in 2007. As a former student of his, I hoped that this review would have met his high standards of integrity and fairness. Matthew C. Augustine Washington University, St. Louis A Review of the State of the English Nation. Vol. 5: 1708–09, ed. John McVeagh. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2007. Pp. vii–xxvii and 1–330; Pp. Part Two: 331– 758. £195; $325. In his own time, Defoe’s reputation gained very little luster from his books that are now read. He wanted to be known, and was known, as the defender of the Williamite revolution in ‘‘The True-Born Englishman,’’ as the martyr for religious liberty who suffered for ‘‘The Shortest Way,’’ and as the iconoclastic ‘‘Mr. Review,’’ author of the most outspoken, yet best-informed commentary on English, Scottish, and European politics from the beginning of Queen Anne’s reign until the Treaty of Utrecht. The two parts of Volume 5 of the Review are the centerpiece of that monumental work, in which Defoe defends the Union of England with Scotland that created Great Britain, maintains support for the war against the French abroad and the Jacobites at home, and anticipates the challenges to be faced by the new Whig ministry that came to power early in 1708. Godolphin’s replacement in January of Harley at the head of the government and the tension between Godolphin and the ‘‘Squadrone’’ or ‘‘Old Whig’’ faction of the party, led by the Earl of Sunderland, created a space for Defoe to become his own man. He could no longer fancy that he was the faithful servant, anticipating (and shaping) his master’s own desires. In the brave new world of English politics, the Squadrone was not above aligning itself with Scottish Jacobites in order to contest for power with the moderate Whig administration. Defoe was independent, his base of power, readers, who in Edinburgh, Belfast, Derry, and Carrickfergus as well as in London awaited the latest Review. In view of his dependence on his subscribers, the change of tone in this volume is striking. Earlier he would harangue and expostulate with his readers; now he is censorious. The English are hypocrites who courted the Scots before the Union, but who now seek to impose on their clergy an abjuration oath that appears to assume they are disloyal: ‘‘if therefore you will hear no more of your ill-treatment of your innocent Neighbours, you have an excellent way to prevent it and silence every ac- 204 cusation, (viz.) REFORM IT.’’ In the parliamentary elections just concluded, Mr. Review sees instances of votes being sold for drink: ‘‘Do ye know honest, blind and foolish Freeholders, do ye know what ye are doing, when ye are taking Money, or taking Drink from your shamefully submissive, cringing Candidates? Do you know that you Exchange Liberty for Gold and Posterity for Drink? Do you know that for ten Shillings you are selling the inestimable Privilege of a free born Subject, and putting your All in the Hand of a Mercenary? Do you know this, or do ye not consider it?’’ In one of the most comic passages in all of Defoe’s writing, he describes a drunken campaign which concludes with the election of a dog named Shock as the Member for a Borough. Though this story is described as ‘‘allegorical,’’ it expresses the outrage of a plainspoken man surrounded by idiots and madmen. In the ‘‘Miscellanea’’ for No. 37, June 22, 1708, Mr. Review is accosted by a resident of Bethlehem...